Gillibrand Aghast, ‘Outraged’ At All-Male Contraception Hearing

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand weighed in this morning on the Senate floor about yesterday’s House hearing on President Obama’s controversial contraception coverage mandate that included no women on the witness list.

The lack of female representation caused New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Washington, D.C. Democratic Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton to walk out of the hearing.

Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, was asked by the Democrats to let women testify. But he refused, reasoning that the hearing was not about reproductive rights and contraception but instead about the Obama administration’s actions “as they relate to freedom of religion and conscience.”

Gillibrand, who has made a name for herself by trying to get more women elected to Congress through her “Off the Sidelines” initiative, applauded Maloney’s actions yesterday and decried Issa’s decision.

“Just when I thought I couldn’t be any more dumbfounded by the debate around here in terms of denying access to women’s health services, there was a hearing yesterday in the House of Representatives on the topic on contraception, and all of the witnesses were male,” Gillibrand said.

“My colleague Carolyn Maloney had it quite right when she walked out on that farce. Let me clear once again, 99 percent – 99 percent! – of all America’s woman have used contraception at some time in their lifetime. When will they get this simple, nondebatale fact: The power to decide whether or not a woman will use contraception lies with her, not her boss, not her employer. What is more intrusive than trying to allow an employer to make medical decisions for someone who works for them.”

Gillibrand insisted this has “nothing to do with religious freedom,” and then cited a 1990 majority opinion written by conservative US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in Employment Division vs. Smith that decreed religious liberty is insufficient grounds for being exempt from laws.

Gillibrand also sent an email to supporters today proclaiming herself “outraged” by yesterday’s hearing. The email included a photo of the all-male panel.